This invention relates to a structure for fixing a radiator grille to an automobile body.
Generally for the purpose of fixing to an automobile body a radiator grille designed concurrently for radiation of heat and decoration of the front exterior, there is used a method which accomplishes their union by use of screw means and nut means or a method which achieves their union by means of plastic fasteners adapted to come into snapping engagement with each other and attached to the matched positions on the automobile body and the radiator grille. Because of ease of use, the latter method resorting to plastic fasteners has found more popular acceptance. The plastic fasteners generally comprise two sets of engaging means and accomplish the union of the automobile body and the radiator grille by having one set of them secured in the openings formed in the fixing portions on the automobile body side and the other set of them secured in the openings formed in the matched fixing portions on the radiator grille side and bringing the opposed sets of engaging means into mutual engagement. The relative positions of the automobile body and the radiator grille, therefore, is determined by the positions of the openings formed as described at the fastening portions. It is, however, difficult to have such openings formed with perfect positional accuracy. In actuality, slight deformation of plastic grilles or slight positional deviation of openings in the automobile body can impair the positional correspondence between the automobile body and the radiator grille and, in the worst case, prevent the openings on the radiator grille from conforming to those on the automobile body. To preclude this difficulty, there may be conceived an idea of giving a slightly greater width to the openings formed on the automobile body thereby allowing the opposed pairs of openings to conform to each other under all conditions and compensating positional deviation, if any, between the opposed openings. Such a method, if applied to the aforementioned plastic fasteners, proves unsuitable where the aforementioned plastic fasteners are used, because the plastic fasteners cannot absorb unwanted slack produced due to the excess width of the openings. Although the method may prove more advantageous where the union is made by use of screw means and nut means, it suffers from inferiority of the efficiency of the fastening work. With a view to enhancing the efficiency with which radiator grilles are fastened to automobile bodies in the automobile assembly line, a method which first permits simple temporary attachment of a radiator grille to an automobile body and, thereafter, allows them to be brought into exact correspondence to each other through elimination of possible positional deviation by fine adjustments of their relative position has been in demand.